Coat hanger tallies



Oct. 27, 1970 P. 5. A. MORRISH 3,535,808

COAT HANGER TALLIES Filed June 14, 1968 Fig.1.

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1 1? re: zorriee um Momtlsn a MdW/m United States Patent 0 3,535,808COAT HANGER TALLIES Peter Geoffrey Alan Morrish, 59 Twyford Ave.,London, N. 2, England Filed June 14, 1968, Ser. No. 737,073 Claimspriority, application Great Britain, July 28, 1967, 34,779/ 67 Int. Cl.G09f 3/06 US. Cl. 40-322 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Thisinvention relates to so-called sizing buttons as used on coat hangers,e.g., in retail clothiers shops, for quick identification of differentsizes of garments, also to similar tally-like fitments as so used, againin retail clothiers shops, for indicating the makers name of thegarment,

or the style or price of the garment, also to similar fitments as soused in laundries, hotel cloakrooms, industrial establishments and likeplaces as a means of identifying the ownership of the garment hanging onthe hanger, either by name or by some other significant marking. For

convenience in the further description of the invention l and in theappended claims such fitments will be referred to as coat hangertallies.

A coat hanger tally as so identified consists essentially of a smallinverted U-shaped unit removably mountable on the shoulder bar of aconventional coat hanger, at or near the base of the stem portion of thehook of the hanger, and incorporating two display panels one constitutedby one of the limbs of the inverted U and the other by the other limb ofthe inverted U, the two display panels carrying respectively, on theirforwardly directed faces, identical garment denominations (size, style,price, ownership, etc.), and the construction being such that when thetally is in mounted position on the coat hanger, with a garment in hungposition thereon, one of the display panels is visible from a positionin front of the hanger and the other is visible from a position in rearof the hanger.

Heretofore, in the conventional tally, the stem portion of the hook ofthe hanger has passed through a small hole provided for its reception inthe portion of the tally, hereinafter designated the bridge, whichbridges the space between the two limbs of the inverted U, the tallybeing designed for threading into mounted position on the hanger overthe end of the hook.

Such a construction tends to be disadvantageous in that it necessitatesthe removal of the hanger from the rail or other support on which it ishung, in order to enable the tally to be mounted on the hanger, orremoved therefrom, e.g,, for interchangement with another of a differentgarment denomination.

The present invention avoids this drawback by employing in place of theusual small hole in the bridge of the tally a slot in the bridge leadingalong the bridge from one end thereof.

The object of the invention is therefore a coat hanger tally consistingof an inverted U-shaped unit removably mountable on the shoulder bar ofa conventional coat Patented Oct. 27, 1970 hanger, at or near the baseof the stem portion of the hook of the hanger, and incorporating twodisplay panels one constituted by one of the limbs of the inverted U andthe other by the other limb of the inverted U, the two display panelscarrying respectively, on their forwardly directed faces, identicalgarment denominations (size, style, price, ownership, etc.), and theconstruction being such that when the tally is in mounted position onthe coat hanger, with a garment in hung position thereon, one of thedisplay panels is visible from a position in front of the hanger and theother is visible from a position in rear of the hanger, the two limbs ofthe U-shaped unit, carrying respectively the two display panels, beingconnected at the top thereof by a narrow bridge formed integrally withthe limbs and there being in said bridge a slot leading along the bridgeto the centre thereof from one end of the bridge.

As will be understood, with this is introduced into position on thehanger and removed therefrom by way of the slot in the bridge andtherefore without the necessity of having to remove the hanger from itssupport.

Preferably, the slot is keyhole shaped, the width of the slot along themain portion thereof, between the entrance of the slot and the enlargedinner end thereof, being such in relation to the diameter of the sternof the hook of the hanger that when the tally is in fitted position onthe hanger it tends to remain in this position, with the stem of thehook located within the enlarged inner end of the slot.

Preferably, also, the tally is a plastics moulding. It may, however, becomposed of metal, in which case it may be a metal stamping bent toshape.

In either case the tally may be resilient and of such cross-sectionalshape in the prefitted condition of the tally that the gap between thedisplay panels tapers downwardly in the tally section-thereby providinga construction in which the tally tends to grip the shoulder bar of thehanger, provided of course the bar is of an appropriate widthcross-sectionally relative to said gap.

If the slot in the tally is keyhole shaped and also the tally isresilient the cross section of the slot in the bridge of the tally mayadvantageously taper downwardly, as with such a construction theeffective width of the slot along the main portion thereof may, ifnecessary (according to the diameter of the stern of the hook of thehanger), be increased so as to permit entrance of the stem of the hookinto said main portion in the operation of fitting the tally on thehanger and in the reverse operation of removing the tally from thehanger, by bending the tally about the longitudinal axis of the bridge,thereby reducing the angle of taper of said main portion of the slot,with resulting increase of the width of the slot at the level of theunderside of the bridge. A further advantage of this construction isthat with it the bridge of the tally grips the stem of the hook of thehanger with substantially line contact (provided, of course, thediameter of the stem is of appropriate magnitude relative to the widthof the slot), thereby easing the operation of sliding the tally into andout of fitted position on the hanger.

It is further advantageous to form the main portion of the slot withflared entrances at the two ends of said portion, as in this way theoperations of fitting the tally on the hanger and removing it therefromare facilitated.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the invention by way of example.

In these drawings:

PK]. 1 is an elevational view of the coat hanger of conventional formwith a tally in accordance with this invention in fitted positionthereon;

FIG. 2 is an elevational view of the tally;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the tally;

construction the tally FIG. 4 is a section through the tally, in fittedposition on the hanger, looking in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 3;and

FIG. is a similar section through the tally in the prefitted conditionthereof, also looking in the direction of arrow A.

Like reference characters denote like parts in the various figures.

The hanger wire hook 2.

The tally shown is an inverted U-shaped plastics moulding possessing asmall measure of resilience and comprising two wings 3, 4 (correspondingto the two limbs of the inverted U) and a bridge 5 (corresponding to thebase of the inverted U).

The wings 3, 4 constitute the two display panels of the tally, theiroutwardly directed faces carrying identical garment denominationmarkings. These markings, in the particular embodiment of the inventionillustrated, are constituted by the numeral 12," which numeral denotesthe stock size of the garment. The tally illustrated is, therefore, asizing button ordinarily so-called.

In the bridge 5 is a keyhole shaped slot comprising a main portion 6 andan enlarged inner end portion 7. The main portion 6 has flared entrances8, 9 at respectively the two ends of the portion and the cross sectionof the slot along the main portion thereof tapers downwardly in thetally section, as clearly shown in FIG. 5.

The two wings 3, 4 may of course be of any desired shape other than thatshown.

My invention in respect of which I hereby seek the grant of LettersPatent of the United States is:

1. A coat hanger tally comprising a resilient inverted U-shaped unitremovably mountable on the base portion of the stem of the hook of aconventional coat hanger, and having two display panels one constitutedby one of shown comprises a shoulder bar 1 and a the limbs of theinverted U and the other by the other limb of the inverted U, the twodisplay panels carrying, respectively, on their outwardly directedfaces, identical garment denominations such as size, price, or the like,the two limbs of the U-shaped unit connected at one of their ends by anarrow bridge integral with the limbs, a keyhole-shaped slot in thebridge extending from substantially the center thereof to one edge, theinner end of the slot enlarged to receive said stem and the inner andouter ends of the slot flared to facilitate application of the tally toa coat hanger and removal therefrom, the slot having a width less thanthe thickness of a stem over which the tally is to be received so thatthe tally is held in place by interengagement of the sides of the slotwith the stem, said slot being tapered downwardly throughout its lengthbetween the flared end portions so that upon flexing the opposite limbsof the unit outwardly the eflective width of the slot is increased, andthe limbs tapered toward each other so that the limbs are adapted togrip between them the adjacent portion of a hanger to be receivedtherebetween.

2. A coat hanger tally as in claim 1 wherein said limbs are adapted tobe flexed outwardly to receive the shoulder bar of a coat hangertherebetween, the natural resiliency of the limbs causing them to gripbetween them the shoulder bar of the hanger.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS WILLIAM H. GRIEB, PrimaryExaminer U.S. Cl. X.R. 223-92

